Introduction Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in India is Asia's largest member-based organization of poor, self-employed women workers earning less than US$1 per day. SEWA represents a confluence of three movements - the labor movement, cooperative movement and the women's movement. SEWA builds the capacity of poor illiterate women to manage their own micro-enterprises. The staff are recruited and promoted from its own member-base, thus it has been able to developing a cadre of "barefoot managers" who although illiterate, become professionals through practical experience and focused capacity building inputs provided by SEWA. SEWA's integrated approach to poverty alleviation comprises: (a) organizing for collective strength; (b) capital formation through access to financial services; (c) capacity building and (d) social security; to enhance women's productivity and to ensure that sudden crises are not a drain on their fragile economies. SEWA's first main goal is full employment ensuring work security, income security, and food security. The second is social security and self-reliance. More details are available at www.sewa.org. This video can be viewed in its entirety or via short video clips sorted along themes (blue underlined) which emerged during the debriefing. This debriefing was organized by the Knowledge and Learning Group as part of AFTQK's knowledge sharing and learning services. Suleiman Namara and the Bank team facilitated and conducted the debriefing on June 19, 2004. Part I. Click to view Wrap-up Meeting at SEWA 1. SEWA components (2 sec – 5:27). Zonal system – chain of command from the community level all the way to the state level. (1:03 min).
2. Way forward – discussion among learning exchange participants on future plans for collaboration and follow up (2:40 min). Have more interactions with local communities Logistical considerations for follow-up post learning exchange. Lessons learned from East African clients
Part Two: Click to view Team Debrief on SEWA Organization (1:06:02 min). Team Presentations: MASAF, TASAF, WDIP (3:45 min). Broad Objectives in the team presentations are to answer the following questions: what lessons have you learned, what have we shared, and what is practical to us to actually take home, and how? Lessons Learned: Group 1 - Presentation by Kristine Kamwendoe (5:28 min). i). SEWA Organization have common values and a common focus point that has guided their vision. As we are guiding our programs and activities, we need to find something that is a common reference point. ii). SEWA's activities are successful because they have a champion and leader that they associate with - this is a very important ingredient for the success of the program. iii). Use of the Integrated Approach. There is complementarity within the activities which SEWA is promoting iv). Mainstreaming Gender. Everyone is struggling to mainstream gender. By promoting women's activities, they may be able to take up roles that are not standard. v). Targeting activities geographically seems to work well v) Economic approach has come first. In this way, they have managed to solve some social issue. Start from economics and then find solutions for other things. vi). Promoting local skill at the national and international level - involves doing some market research to find the best ways of promoting the skills.
Lessons Learned: Group 2 (7:57 min). Ensuring sustainability. Ownership and being empowered is very important to sustainability. As the owner of their own institutions, they were able to decide the activities and were exercising democracy at a very low level. It is necessary to have a champion. SEWA had a chamion - how can this be transplanted? There are other unique factors: i). microfinance and interest rates. ii) integrated approach - health care, insurance, banking economic involvement, awareness-raising, these are not just isolated initiatives. iii). linkages to the private sector. iv) linakages with government v) targeting and vulnerability mapping. vi) complementary approach, globalization vii). Focus on economic empowerment as an entry point to achieving social capital
Lessons Learned: Group 3. (4:15 min). Lessons Learned include: i). poor women can organize themselves ii). it is possible to break cultural taboos and change communities attitudes and behavior iii) transparency and accountability are strong. iv). the women have good leadership skills. v) women's groups have quality product vi). food for work has been instrmental for enhancing community- driven solutions vii). womens skills are fully utilized in SEWA. Strengths that enabled these success: i). Women are committed ii). Lack of political interference iii) There are no parallel institutions
Input from Group (1:19 min) The complementary and integrated strategy is important. So is scaling up and the chain of activities that have taken place from the village level. Third is the negotiating capacity, and the supported and encouragment of initiatives by the government.
Lessons Learned from Group 3: Presentation by Reinhard Woytek. (3:02 min). Building on IK: is there a value issue involved - is it a good thing that they change all their gender roles - how much is SEWA cxhanging the cultuural context. This was a queestion we had. This has little to do with income generating activities. There has to be a market, and "SEWA has been tremendously successful at finding the market, securing the market, developing the market and staying up to date with an increasingly competitive market." There are also things we have not learned. How participatory is this leadership? How much is SEWA pushing communities. This was left as an open question.
Input from Group (1:08 min) The communities own the production and market. and are able to cut off the middle men. "Owning not only the production but also the marketing becomes important. " The second issue is of capacity building; training communities on computers, quality management etc. (1:59 min).
Full Team Discussion (11:00 min) Vinayak Ghatate: (1:59 min). A key factor has been in the exposure of the women's groups to the markets themselves - taking them to the market exposing them to the markets and demand structure. Once the women have this exposure then they realize the value of skill application, and what product development means - it has to be very demand driven. From the organization side: An organization has to target the markets efficiently and effectively. The tastes of the consumer have to be kept in mind Tadelech Debele (58 sec). II. Team Responses to: "What did we Share?" (2:16 min). It is not so much mainstreaming gender, but affirmative action to make sure that the promotion of women and women's empowerment actually goes on. Also it is about participation of the whole family in the women's empowerment. Christine Kamwendoe: (48 sec). Reinhard Woytek (1:06 min). there was the feeling in the team that we did n9oot share factual information, but also that we contributed to their marketing campaigns - what we learned their, we will help to dissemiunate in our countries. Cultural Context Contributing to the Success of SEWA (2:10 min). Issues of discipline and cultural beliefs have something to contribute to the success. Operational Lessons Learned. (42 sec). We would like at the next stop to allow for less visitation and more interaction. III. Responses to: "What did we take home?" (14:00 min) Things to Adapt at Home.(3:37 min). We have a lot of homework to do.Need to focus on what we have in terms of skills, and also need a change of mindset that requires a serious transformation. Models for how to Succeeed. "We need to choose and pick what will fit our context - and maybe also develop on them a litte bit of value added or a little differrences which will fit our context - there are differrent styles, tools, mechanisms..." (1:15 min) Elements of Success: Dedication and Vision (1:58 min). We can take home " the dedication, the visions they have, and the motto that we can inculcate in our people, that we can change - that we can take home and adapt to our specific situation. Microfinance and Linkages to the Private Sector. (57 sec). Dividends with higher interest rates - this is something you can transplant. Also the group was impressed with the integrated approach. Thirdly, the linkages to the private sector - this can also be adapted. Immediate Actions to Take Home (2:16 min). Question of marketing how best to develop a strategy for marketing. Also agreed to community to community exchanges, creating performance indicators for masonry and craft training, develop IT solutions for poor communities to help them keep track of a number of integrated activities. Are Poor People Bankable? (1:25 min). Most financial institutions have not think "that poor people are bankable, especially in Africa., But it does seem to come out that especially where the poor people have organized themselves into a critical mass - there were real possibilities for financial institutions to se them as a bankable community. Not only in terms of savings but in terms of loans. Additional Team Inputs.(2:26 min). Concluding Remarks and areas for further exploration - Suleiman Namara (2:33 min). Operational and Coordination Issues. (9:07 min). Â
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